


Five Times Someone Slept on Phil Coulson

by storiesfortravellers



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Community: kink_bingo, Domestic, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 09:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the prompt at avengerkink: 5 times Avengers (or Pepper) slept on Coulson.</p><p>Some humor, some hurt/comfort, some romance. Natasha learning to trust her handler. Tony!whump.  Clint!schmoop. </p><p>Clint/Coulson, with references to Pepper/Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Someone Slept on Phil Coulson

1\. Car rides made Thor sleepy. He just wasn’t used to that mode of transportation.

Coulson supposed he should be grateful it wasn’t motion sickness. 

Thor took up most of the backseat of a town car, and so generally he curled up around Phil as he snored like, well, thunder. A snoring, occasionally sleep-mumbling, heap of muscle around him, locks of blond hair wild and unavoidable. 

It wasn’t physically pleasant. But Coulson, against his will, thought it was kind of adorable how uninhibited Thor was.

It wasn’t quite so cute when Thor, innocently, told the team that “Coulson is wonderful to sleep with . So soft and tiny.”

 

2\. On Nathasha’s fifth SHIELD mission, the enemy managed to get the jump on her, injecting her with a knockout drug that would have her out in a few minutes. 

No one saw who managed to drug the infamous Black Widow. But when she came into the conference room where the mark was, Coulson could see over the video feed that she almost tripped on the rug.

He called it immediately.

A minute after the extraction, as Natasha sat next to him in the helicopter, the drug was about to take full effect. She was barely able to keep her eyes open.

“How did you know…I tried to hide….”

“No one but your handler would have noticed that you were-”

“Compromised?”

“Different,” Coulson replied.

“Sir. I don’t think I can stay aw--… I think I’m falling a….”

“It’s okay, Agent. Get some rest. We’ll get back to medical and they’ll get it out of your system.”

“The mission … I can still -- I can still gommph the mrrkand…” she slurred, eyes closed and wavering in her seat.

“Not your call, Agent. Your orders are to get some rest.”

“They have… they have… we should….” Her eyes were still closed.

“Agent Romanov. Other SHIELD agents are handling the mission on the ground. _My_ mission is the safe extraction of my asset. I am personally handling your transportation to a clinic bed at HQ, and you’re not getting out of my sight. Now can you follow orders and get some rest?”

There was a pause as Natasha continued to sway back and forth until finally her head landed on Coulson’s shoulder. She paused, mumbled, “Yes, sir,” and passed out.

 

3\. Pepper often sat next to Coulson on StarkJet flights. Often she would fall asleep half snuggled up to him, all rather innocently. Sometimes, she would wake up all of a sudden, sit right up, and talk to herself before immediately collapsing back into sleep. Usually, it was work related: “Don’t forget the due diligence!” or “Review Board is coming this Thursday!” Once in a while, to Coulson’s great amusement and worry, it was something along the lines of “Tony, no large explosions in the house!” 

When Tony was missing for three weeks, Pepper insisted on riding along as Coulson chased any lead they found; she was placing her bets on him being the first to reach him. He had a hard time convincing her to get any sleep on those long rides, most of them wild goose chases. But once in a while, she would lean on Coulson’s shoulder, her frame seeming light and delicate with worry. And she would wake up every five minutes to yell, “Is Tony okay?” before looking around, seeing the answer, and falling back into restless sleep.

4\. They did find Tony, eventually. 

Tony, however, requested that Pepper meet him back home. Coulson was surprised, but Pepper explained (and how much of her life is explaining Tony?), “That means it was bad, Phil. If he needs time before he sees me… it was bad.” And she thanked him for his help and managed half a polite smile even as she looked paler and more weary than he’d ever seen her.

Phil’s intel had in fact turned out to be key; so had Natasha’s and Clint’s. It was made considerably easier that once Tony saw he had a way out, he felt free to discharge the approximately 400 chaos-creating devices that he had secretly made and hidden throughout the compound.

The idiots had given Tony Stark a lab.

The one thing Coulson knew for sure, is that if he were a supervillain, he would never try to force Tony Stark to create weapons for him. SHIELD in fact had a highly secretive memo that suggested that Stark might be leveraged with his team loyalty into creating weapons of more massive power than, for instance, Clint’s new high-tech bow. Coulson had promptly answered with a spreadsheet analysis of all the people who had tried to make Tony Stark create technology he didn’t want to create, and how all of those people ended up. Fury was convinced.

And so Coulson wasn’t surprised at all that half of Tony’s rescue was engineered by Tony himself. And as much as Coulson thought of Tony as a likeable but immature pain in the ass, he respected the man’s resilience, his ability to move onto the next snarky comment when most untrained civilians wouldn’t or couldn’t. 

But this wasn’t the Tony Coulson saw next to him on the long plane ride home. He didn’t remember Tony ever being silent this long. 

Tony had plenty of bruises and cuts, but there could have been unseen injuries as well.

Not to manage whatever had happened psychologically.

Tony insisted that the hardships were minor. If that were true, then Tony could be struggling with the reminders of the traumatic experience that turned him into Iron Man in the first place.

Of course, Coulson thought it was more likely that Tony was insisting that things were fine when they weren’t. Either way, Coulson was already making mental notes about what to instruct the psych department, how to make sure Pepper stays in the loop, etc.

After a couple of hours of silence, Tony suddenly turned to Phil. “Thank you for finding me. Really. Thanks.”

Coulson nodded. It seemed a little insensitive to say he was just doing his job. “You’re welcome. Very impressive devices you made down there.”

Tony snorted. “Substandard equipment they gave me. Otherwise….”

“I’m sure with the proper equipment you would have imprisoned them in a flying space jail by now.”

“Sarcasm? Really?” Tony said, for the first time almost smiling.

“No, actually. It wouldn’t surprise me,” Coulson answered in all earnestness. 

Tony smiled for real then, small but clearly there. 

He paused, then asked Coulson, “Was Pepper upset? About not wanting to see her ?”

“No. She understands.”

Tony winced at that, realizing it meant Pepper knew exactly why he did it. Coulson could see the shame, the embarrassment, as Tony tried to hide the fact he was starting to tear up. Tony leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and covered his face with his hands, making a sigh as if to pretend that his face was in his hands out of frustration or tiredness. 

There was part of Coulson that wondered if Tony’s pride needed protection more than any other part of him – if Coulson would be doing him a kindness by retreating to another corner of the plane and pretending he didn’t see anything. 

But Coulson had been in similar situations. And he knew that nothing makes it hit you all at once like realizing that everyone knows what you’ve been through. 

He put an hand on Tony’s shoulder, slid it comfortingly back and forth across Tony’s back. Tony started to shudder, to whimper, and eventually he couldn’t hide the sobs. Coulson kept doing what he was doing, soft strokes on Tony’s back as Tony hunched over in his seat. And Phil was careful to not say “It’s okay” or “It’s going to be fine,” because it wasn’t okay, and they never really knew if it was going to be fine.

Eventually the sobs gave into whimpers again, tapering off as Tony practically leaned into Phil’s lap. Coulson sifted his fingers through Tony’s hair, and Tony didn’t seem to have the urge to make a single smartass comment. Eventually he fell asleep, his head using Coulson’s thigh as a pillow, and Coulson could tell the sleep was light and troubled.

It was strange for Coulson to see Tony like this. So…unguarded. They all joked about Tony’s metaphorical armor, but to see him without it pulled at something dark and angry in Coulson, because as much as he wanted to comfort Tony, the fact that Tony was letting him meant something was terribly wrong. 

Tony and Coulson never talked about the plane ride home. But Coulson handled the treatment of Tony’s captors personally.

5\. The first time Clint spent the night, Coulson held him tightly, letting out the flood of protectiveness he had felt for years. 

The second time, Clint had buried his face in Coulson’s neck, inhaling the man’s scent before falling asleep in his arms.

The third time, they spooned, Clint’s back a plane of heat and muscle against Phil’s chest. Phil was able to kiss him on the temple without waking him.

The twentieth time they spent the night together, Clint gave Coulson a quick shove.

“What?”

“You’re hogging the covers.”

“You’re on my side anyway.”

“Bullshit.”

“Just go to sleep, Barton.”

“I will if you’ll stop hogging the covers.”

“You’re very rude when you’re tired,” Coulson grouched as he lifted up to move the covers over.

“Yeah, that’s how you know we’re a real couple,” Clint muttered.

Coulson smiled a little at that. “Yeah,” he said, drowsily going back into sleep, “I guess you’re right.”


End file.
